When most people start out shooting video with a DSLR camera, one of the first questions they come up with is “what lens should I use?”. The answer is both simple and not so simple. For the simple part, the answer is a quality lens typically from the camera manufacturer (i.e. not a 3rd party lens). But the not so simple part is a little trickier.

And it’s trickier because it comes down to the type of video you’ll be shooting and the type of camera you are using. If you’ll be shooting broad scenes, a wide angle lens will work best. If you want to achieve depth-of-field, a telephoto (zoom) lens will work best. And if you’ll be shooting in low light, you’ll need a lens that offers a large aperture.

Those things are all pretty basic. But what most people don’t realize is that the image sensor on your camera can dramatically affect the performance of a lens. That means the same lens on cameras with different image sensors will perform very differently. Specifically, if you’re using a higher-end DSLR camera with a full-frame image sensor, you’ll get a lot more out of your lens. And if you’re using a cheaper DSLR with a “crop” sensor, well, you’ll get a lot less out of your lens.

Confused? Then watch the video below. It gives an excellent demonstration of how the same lens performs on two different cameras. One camera is a Canon 5D Mark II (full-frame sensor) and the other is a Canon 7D (crop sensor):

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